UN Grants Recognition to Pro-Terrorist Group

The United Nations continues to prove itself to be an unqualified authority on world affairs, this time, according to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), by giving special recognition to an organization that supports Hamas terrorist groups and was involved in organizing flotillas headed to Gaza.

The organization in question is the free Palestine Movement (FPM), a California-based leftist organization whose stated mission, according to its website, is "to challenge Israeli policies and actions that deny Palestinians their human rights, and in particular the unfettered access to all of Palestine. We adhere to the principles of non-violence in direct actions that exercise Palestinian rights in defiance of restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities. We partner with other organizations in projects that are consistent with our mission statement and points of unity."

Despite FPM’s claims of non-violence, its head is Dr. Paul Larudee, who was arrested in 2006 and deported from Israel after entering the country under a false identity. He was discovered to have been working with Hamas and allegedly traveled to Lebanon, where he assisted Hezbollah during the second Lebanon war.

Israel National News also reports that Larudee entered Gaza in 2008, having broken the naval blockade, and that he took part in the 2010 flotilla, onboard the Sfendoni 8000, a boat of the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG) — an anti-Israel, pro-Hamas organization.

Even more incriminating is that Larudee received an award from Hamas’ Prime Minister in Gaza in 2009.

FrontPageMag.com also notes Larudee’s connection to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which had ties to Muhammad Sadique Khan, one of the terrorists responsible for the July 7, 2005 London bombings:

The ISM favors a kindred strategy, deploying its dissembling rhetoric in precisely the same way as Ali Al-Timimi [a Virginia-based imam who was sentenced to life in prison by a U.S. federal court for inspiring his Islamic students to train as jihadist warriors]. Listen to Paul Larudee, the Northern California head of the ISM. Larudee’s recent interview with an al-Jazeera interviewer on public radio was a classic form of ISM doublespeak — affirming a commitment to non-violence while cutting a loophole for terrorism. Explained Larudee:

"We believe in the application of international law. Although we are totally dedicated to nonviolence, we recognize not everyone in the Palestinian community is dedicated to nonviolence and under international law we recognize that violence is necessary and it is permissible for oppressed and occupied people to use armed resistance and we recognize their right to do so."

International law, of course, proscribes blowing up women and children on buses or in subway trains in Jerusalem and London. The fact that Larudee is a piano tuner by trade and not an international attorney does not allow him to plead ignorance. It was Larudee, after all, who once boasted of sleeping in the bed of a suicide bomber. Then, too, it is Larudee who recruits ISM “volunteers” to go to the Middle East and provide cover for terrorists. (This writer has attended ISM training sessions where ISM volunteers are taught how to provide cover for stone throwers of the PLO.)

In other words, Larudee’s terrorist connections are hardly debatable.

The ITIC reports that the UN committee which deals with Palestinian rights sent a letter to Larudee granting him recognition as per his request, and labeled his group a “civil society organization” promoting the Palestinians' cause.

According to Israel International News:

ITIC also notes that Larudee has previously written an article in which he expressed support and understanding of the motives of suicide bombers. The report adds that Larudee spent large amounts of time in the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria between 2002 and 2003, as part of the activities of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), another extremist anti-Israel group which seeks to destroy Israel and with which Larudee works. The award from Hamas PM Haniyeh was given to Larudee in 2009 when he stayed in Gaza, notes the report.

This is not the first time the UN has revealed its bias against Israel. It did little to disguise its anti-Israel sentiments in its 2009 report criticizing Israel’s counterterrorism tactics. The Wall Street Journaldescribed the report:

This week, the United Nation’s Human Rights Council produced a 600-page report alleging that Israel carried out war crimes in Gaza. The Goldstone Report — named for its chief investigator Richard Goldstone — also asserts that Israel’s motives for its operations against Hamas nine months ago were purely political.

Meir Indor, director of Almagor — a terror victims' group — asserts that terror suspects have refrained from providing information to Israeli forces in the past because they are well aware that they will be protected by the United Nations. Almagor also contends that such knowledge has led to increased terror attacks.

The United Nations’ past judgments are not boast-worthy. In March, the UN Commission on the Status of Women accepted Iran as a member when just days prior, the UN Human Rights Council had suspended Libya’s membership in order to preserve its reputation.

The double-talk surrounding the Libyan maneuver was breathtaking. It was only nine months ago, after getting to know Qaddafi over four decades, that the General Assembly had elected Libya to serve on the U.N.’s top human rights body. And Libya still serves on the U.N. Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the U.N. Commission on Information, and the Executive Board of U.N. Women.

Iran’s membership in a commission that “sets global standards and forumulates concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide” is laughable at best and hypocritical at worst.

Likewise, the UN Human Rights Council, which is “responsible for promoting universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all,” is comprised of nations such as China, Cuba, and Syria — all countries notorious for human rights violations.

The UN’s removal of Libya from its Human Rights Council appears to be nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Fox News opines that “The U.N. has no intention of really cleaning house, since there would be no baby left with the bath water.”

Given that the United Nations recognizes — and therefore legitimizes — terrorist supporters, and legitimizes human rights violations by inviting human rights violators into commissions supposedly guarding such rights, there is little wonder at the swelling public outcry from constitutionalists for America to withdraw from the world body.

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